After an Indian Navy Drishti-10 Starliner unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, during a normal training sortie in Dharampur village in Gujarat’s Porbandar district, a Board of Inquiry (BoI) has been ordered.
The investigation will ascertain whether a technical issue, communication connection loss, or other system breakdown was the cause of the incident.
The Navy claimed in a statement on X that there were no reports of deaths or injuries on the ground when the UAV crashed during a training mission close to the Porbandar base. It further stated that an inquiry was being conducted to determine what caused the tragedy.
After recovering the debris from the crash scene, security personnel have started a technical investigation.
The UAV may have experienced a technical issue, according to defense sources, but the precise reason won’t be known until after the investigation.
The Indianized version of Israel’s battle-tested Hermes-900 Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV is called the Drishti-10. In collaboration with Israel’s Elbit Systems, Adani Defence and Aerospace is licence-manufacturing it at its Hyderabad site.
In around 18 months, this is the second incident utilizing the Hermes-900-based platform that was obtained through emergency procurement.
A Drishti-10 being flown by the manufacturer during pre-acceptance trials apparently lost its communication link prior to official admission into navy service, causing it to ditch into the Arabian Sea in January of last year. The manufacturer later replaced the aircraft.
Under the fourth tranche of emergency procurements in 2023, the Army and the Navy each purchased two Drishti-10 drones, each costing about ₹140 crore.
With an operational ceiling of 30,000 feet, a payload capacity of 450 kg, and an endurance of up to 36 hours, the platform is intended for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations.
According to defense sources, the Navy is pursuing a proposal to add 10 more Drishti-10 drones to bolster ongoing surveillance over the Indian Ocean Region, where Chinese naval and survey vessels maintain an increasing presence. The latest crash is anticipated to rekindle concerns about the platform’s dependability.
Following allegations during the recent Israel-Iran war that Iranian forces were able to knock down or force the crash-landing of Hermes-900 UAVs, the Hermes-900 platform has gained worldwide interest.
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